A failing grade

Graduation rates are climbing -- but not among football, basketball players

The Texas Longhorns could miss playing for a national championship -- again. Nick Saban's football juggernaut at LSU might already be out of the bowl picture. Ditto the masterful reclamation projects of Chuck Amato and Walt Harris at North Carolina State and Pittsburgh, respectively.

And they wouldn't be alone on the sidelines. Eight of the schools in this week's Associated Press Top 25 poll fail to graduate 50 percent of their players and two others are borderline -- namely Big Ten rivals Michigan and defending national champ Ohio State.

What's this all about? Don't fret, none of these programs are in danger of being left behind this bowl season (Just the players' textbooks and tutors, probably).

We're just looking at the latest NCAA graduation report in light of a novel recommendation by the Knight Commission on Intercollegiate Athletics -- one which the majority of college presidents lack the gumption to endorse -- that teams under a 50 percent graduation rate be banned from postseason play.

Let's understand the presidential reluctance here. High-minded as they may sometimes appear, college administrators can't afford the potential loss of postseason revenue. They'd rather not alienate alumni, well-heeled boosters, TV network execs and a talent pool of prospective student applicants, some deliriously swayed by the university's football fortunes. The bottom line is money. 

If the Knight Commission plan were in place, current Top 25 teams Southern Cal, Tennessee, Iowa and South Carolina would also be kept home this bowl season. Take it a step further and one third of the 63 schools that make up the Bowl Championship Series fail to graduate at least 50 percent of their football players. These are the football schools sharing in the sweetheart deal that annually generates more than $100 million for the half dozen BCS conferences and a very, very modest $8 million for the other five Division I-A conferences.

Then you have the ultimate classroom loser, the Southeastern Conference, which would have half of its 12 members (kudos to Vanderbilt and Chancellor Gordon Gee for a 91 percent graduation rate) ineligible for postseason bowls and, presumably, its lucrative conference playoff. This is the same conference, not surprisingly, that currently leads the college sports world in scandal and corruption -- and probably Saturday afternoon attendance.

So the question some might ask is: Do annual graduation reports really tell us anything? The NCAA itself has a group now tinkering with the formula, and some folks say it doesn't matter if someone graduates within six years or not, as long as they earn a degree. Others argue that athletes benefit from simply being in an academic environment, even if they don't leave with a degree.

  "It's an issue that requires a complex, in-depth study,'' said fomer NBA player Len Elmore, president of TEST U, an online standardized test preparation service. "Really, the programs are reflected not so much by what the student-athlete is while they are matriculating, but who they are when they are finished. What are they doing? Yeah, there are some guys who are going to go in the pros, but what happens to the rest of them?''

According to first-year NCAA president Myles Brand, however, the latest graduation rates should be taken as a sign that academic reform is taking hold. And let's give credit -- it's encouraging to see the overall student-athlete graduation rate hit 62 percent (based on students entering in 1996 and graduating within a six-year time period).

But the big boys, the quasi professionals suiting up in basketball and football, still lag miserably behind. The average rate of 54 percent in Division I-A football is bad enough. But then there's the 44 percent in Division I men's basketball (42 of the 64 teams in the last NCAA tournament failed to graduate 50 percent).

"Every self-respecting university should graduate at least 50 percent of its people,'' said William Friday, co-chair of the Knight Commission. "This really should be a matter of pride. It is a matter of what happens to your diploma. When it is degraded by this kind of performance, then people get concerned.''

So, off the latest numbers, let's call out on the slackers and salute the achievers. This student-athlete business should be deemed an embarrassing farce around football programs like Kentucky (24 percent), Minnesota (30 percent), North Carolina (35 percent) and even Cal-Berkeley (44 percent).

Some might argue that many of the current head coaches weren't on the job when the class studied by the NCAA entered six years ago. Perhaps players were run off or transferred after the head coach was fired or bolted for a better job. But clearly, the programs -- especially the 21 BCS schools failing to graduate half their players -- can't shrink from their shortcomings.

Not when other schools manage to win football games and graduate players at the same time. Notre Dame (92 percent) and Wake Forest (86 percent), as examples, rank in the current Top 25 and are among the elite in graduating players. Boston College has a competitive football team and a No. 1 graduation rate of 95 percent. Joe Paterno enjoys a winning tradition at Penn State and an 86 percent graduation rate.

Everyone can't be Stanford or Duke, we agree. But the suspicion here is the gap would shrink with the threat of a postseason penalty for graduating less than half your players.

Mike Fish is a senior writer for SI.com.